Hideo Kojima branding returns to Metal Gear Products

The merry-go-round of signals from Konami regarding its Metal Gear Solid franchise and relationship with creator Hideo Kojima just keeps on spinning. The Internet has been on the edge of its seat surrouding speculation and reports that the two will soon be going their separate ways, and we have finally come around full rotation once!

The event which kicked off this troubling story was Kojima’s name being removed from the boxes and branding of Metal Gear Solid V, but concessions seem to have been made in that regard. Just as mysteriously as when it had vanished, Konami has reinstated the classic “A Hideo Kojima Game” branding to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, and Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection on its official website.

My guess is Konami realized nobody was buying into its “shifting our production structure to a headquarters-controlled system” PR reasoning, and it is in damage control to avoid looking like the bad guy here. As I mentioned before, this free-to-play mobile route is just the direction Konami has chosen to take its business, and Kojima probably feels that he doesn’t have a place there anymore. That’s just the way of the world.

My only issue with this whole situation was removing a creative mind from his creation, and that was the main jerk move in this two way ego battle. Reminds me of the time Capcom scratched the creative minds from Okami’s Wii port credits after they had left the company. Now that Konami has righted this wrong though, I’ve got no problem other than possibly never seeing classic Konami properties in video game form again. Though, I’ve been prepared for that for quite some time.

I’ve also been mentally prepared for Kojima to hit the indie market, which I can’t wait for.